Once the request is triggered, it is forwarded to the inbox of the Terminologist on Call (TOC). The TOC checks the request for validity, i.e., researches whether the concept already exists in the database under a different name, checks spelling variations, and ensures that all mandatory information is filled in. The entry is then assigned to the vertical terminologist and its status is set to “Work in Progress."

Research and validation

The vertical terminologist researches the entry, writes a definition and presents the entry to the terminologist team. All terminologists validate the concept against existing concepts in their own vertical. Most synonyms are discovered during this step. Furthermore, terminologists check whether standards have been adhered to. Any feedback is evaluated and incorporated before the entry is moved on to a subject matter expert (SME), who validates the content of an entry against the subject field. Any suggestions for improvement are entered into the Comments field and the entry is sent back to the vertical terminologist, who applies comments as warranted. The next step is linguistic validation by an editor. Again, feedback is entered either directly in the data category fields or elaborated on in the Comments field. The vertical terminologist enters feedback and makes sure that all pending issues are resolved, and then forwards the term to the English terminologist for release.

Release

Although a "requested" or "work in progress" entry is visible in the database to anyone who searches for it, it is not released, i.e., approved, rejected, or obsoleted, until the English terminologist validates the entire entry for data integrity. Specifically, the entry must be validated against a checklist of ten quality-related items before it can receive its final status of "Approved," "Obsolete" or "Do Not Use." The use of this checklist ensures that the entry is as good as possible at that particular point in time.

Foreign entry

Although language terminologists and translators may be working on a particular foreign language entry while the corresponding English entry is still in process, most of the work should be done on the foreign term only when the English entry is fairly stable or even released to avoid the risk of major rework. A foreign entry is typically researched and checked by at least two people, the terminologist and the translator. In many cases, the entry is also presented to a consultant in the foreign subsidiary for additional content approval. Once all parties have agreed and all issues are resolved, the foreign entry is released.

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